What to Watch on Thursday: ‘American Crime’ goes deep

American Crime (10 p.m., ABC) – Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman play the acrimoniously divorced parents of an Iraq war veteran who is murdered in an apparent home invasion in which the young man’s wife was critically injured. The investigation into the crime, which envelopes both the innocent and the guilty – including a Mexican-American family and a couple of homeless drug addicts – creates more questions than answers, and stirs up complicated issues of race, class and justice. This stunning 11-episode limited series, created by John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “12 Years a Slave,” feels too good for network television.

Also on tonight . . .

Grey’s Anatomy (8 p.m., ABC) – Amelia operates on Dr. Herman, but the surgery proves to be more challenging than she expected.

The Slap (8 p.m., NBC) – Manolis believes he’s the only one who can save the family and sets out to convince Aisha to forgive Harry.

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Backstrom (9 p.m., Fox) – An oil-pipeline explosion in Backstrom’s childhood hometown looks to be the work of ecoterrorists. Backstrom’s estranged father, the town sheriff (Robert Forster), assists in the investigation.

Dig (10 p.m., USA) – The premiere of a new action-thriller that tells the story of a murder mystery set against the backdrop of modern day Jerusalem. Jason Isaacs plays an FBI agent and Anne Heche plays his boss and love interest.

It's must read television! We have DVRs. We have cable. We have armchairs. That makes us highly qualified to talk about television. Join us as we explore what's good, what's bad, what's too bad to miss, and anything else TV has to offer. Contributors are Brooke Cain and Thad Ogburn.